Bachmann made the comments while speaking against this week’s congressional agreement to raise the debt ceiling.

She has been a strong opponent of the increase, saying the nation could have met its obligations without taking action to increase debt. Many economic experts, however, have said the U.S. could have been forced to default on some of its debt obligations had the increase not been approved. That would have been a major problem that could have spun the U.S. and the global economies into a downward spiral, they contended.

“It’s kind of like a limburger cheese deal,” Bachmann said to about 85 people in the parking lot of a Pizza Ranch restaurant. “They passed this deal and what happened yesterday to the markets? It went down 512 points, the ninth-worst day in the history of Wall Street.”

She used a dry-eraser board to write all the zeros to represent the increased debt limit.

She continued: “You might think you can fool the people, but you can’t fool the marketplace. So the marketplace said no dice. Isn’t it interesting that happened yesterday on President Obama’s birthday? So the birthday present he got was a huge drop of 512 points in the market.”

Bachmann hinted to the crowd that as president she would not cut defense spending, although she indicated otherwise when asked by reporters after the event.

“Under this debt-ceiling bill, do you know how this works? The first thing that gets whacked and with a hatchet is defense,” Bachmann said, noting that her dad and other relatives have served in the military.

She clarified her statements when answering questions from reporters after the event.

“I think we need to have everything on the table, which would include the defense budget,” Bachmann said. “No one is saying that there aren’t efficiencies in the Defense Department that we need to take a look at. Certainly, we do.”

Bachmann also posed for pictures with NASCAR driver Michael McDowell, who was part of another event also in the parking lot of the restaurant in which he met with fans.

Later Friday during a campaign stop in rural Dexter, Bachmann directed her staff to shut down the motor of her tour bus after she noted that exhaust was being pumped into an open machine shed where she was speaking to a crowd of about 100 people.

“I can smell some fumes in here,” said Bachmann, about 12 minutes into her talk. “Maybe that’s not such a good idea, even with the doors open.”

The event, on the farm of Brent and Theresa Voss, was originally scheduled to be held outside. However, organizers moved her speech inside a machine shed because of rain.

Bachmann’s bus pulled into the machine shed and the bus — plastered with her campaign signs — served as a backdrop.

But the driver didn’t turn the vehicle’s motor off right away, leaving it to pump fumes into the room, even though two large garage doors remained open.

It did not appear that anyone became ill from the fumes, although several people stood outside of the doors.